BOSTON – After Red Sox outfielder Wily Mo Pena failed to hit a home run in the third inning last night, he returned to the dugout and received an earful from his teammates.

“We told him he [stinks],” Mike Lowell said after the Red Sox beat the Yankees 7-6 last night at Fenway Park.

The bar had been set high. The four previous Red Sox batters had all homered against Yankees rookie Chase Wright, but Pena struck out to end the historic ride.

Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Lowell and Jason Varitek brought Fenway to life with successive homers that transformed a three-run deficit into a 4-3 lead for Daisuke Matsuzaka.

It marked only the fifth time in major league history that a team hit four consecutive homers in an inning. The Dodgers accomplished the feat on Sept. 18 of last season in the ninth inning against the Padres, when Jeff Kent and Drew (yes, the same J.D. Drew who was part of last night’s chain) homered against Jon Adkins before Trevor Hoffman entered and surrendered blasts to Russ Martin and Marlon Anderson.

The last AL team to hit four straight homers in an inning was the Minnesota Twins on May 2 , 1964 against the Kansas City Athletics. In the top of the 11th, Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall and Harmon Killebrew homered in succession.

If Drew being part of two barrages in which a team hit four straight homers in an inning wasn’t strange enough, consider that Tito Francona, whose son Terry is the Red Sox’s manager, was part of four straight homers while playing for the Indians on July 31, 1963. Woodie Held, Pedro Ramos, Francona and Larry Brown did that damage in the sixth inning against Paul Foytack.

Terry Francona said he was proud to see his father’s name listed on the center field screen last night as part of that history.

Lowell said the dugout was “going crazy” as Varitek’s ball cleared the Green Monster. He said most of the players knew four straight homers in an inning was exceptionally rare.

“There was totally disbelief in the dugout, because usually four straight hitters don’t square up a ball for base hits, let alone home runs,” Lowell said. “And being down three [runs] . . . that’s a big momentum shift.”